I Am A Warrior and This Is My Song

Last week when I first looked at this, there were a little over 2,500 views. There are now over 65,000 views. I think we need to keep this in view.

NY-23 Is the "Tipping Point"

I'm not shilling for the NRT. This is not a request for contributions. It's information to reinforce the mind-set that conservative principles and values are making a comeback.

Since Scozzafava has dropped out, the outcome of the Special Election in NY-23 seems pretty obvious. Barring interference from outside agitators like ACORN or SEIU, Doug Hoffman will be the new representative for the 23rd District of New York.

In the past 9 months, we have seen some of the most blatant attempts to sabotage and circumvent the Constitution that have ever been tried. Some are succeeding. We will need to overturn these successes in the next session of Congress, and to do that, we will need true Constitutional Conservatives.

Doug Hoffman is the beginning of the conservative movement's efforts to take Congress back to the original intent of the Founding Fathers. The "Republican" leadership in the House will be measured by how well they adapt to the new/old ideas of governing.

Its time for the conservatives in Congress to put a stop to the socialist ideas being pushed down the throats of American citizens. Its time to recognize that the Constitution tells Congress what they can and cannot do.

The Constitution is the Law.
Everything else is a regulation.

The National Republican Trust identified this race months ago as critical to conservatives and has worked tirelessly since to rally other conservatives to this righteous cause. NOW ALL EYES ARE ON THIS ELECTION!

National conservatives from across the country continue to answer the call to action by endorsing and fighting to elect Hoffman. The list includes Sarah Palin, Rush
Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Tim Pawlenty, George Pataki, Michele Malkin, Fred Thompson, Rick Santorum, Steve Forbes, Dick Armey, Michele Bachmann, The New York Post, American Conservative Union, Club for Growth and many more.

We may be the underdogs but we are positioned to deliver a stunning upset to the
liberal media, radical Democrats and unprincipled GOP insiders. A win for either of the liberal establishment candidates is a win for Obama, Pelosi and their liberal allies.
A conservative victory over two liberal major party candidates will rock the political establishment and become the springboard for taking back the Republican Party and our Country from the far left and squishy Republican appeasers that kowtow to every radical, media driven whim.

A victory in NY-23 will be a victory of principle over party, and will set the tone for the remainder of the legislative cycle. Congressional members will have to think twice, and then a third time, before casting their values aside to gain short-term political favors.

An upset victory by Doug Hoffman will kick-off the conservative resurgence in 2010 and A RETURN TO THE PRINCIPLES OF RONALD REAGAN.

OOPS!!!

I saw this late last night after the FreedomWorks event, but was too tired to post it.

Washington Post -- 7 on defense panel scrutinized

A sloppy staffer for the House Ethics committee accidentally left a July report on a public server and now the committee's primary job -- providing cover for members of the House under fire for bad actions -- is in jeopardy on a number of cases.We got to see a bit about perennial problems for Reps Charlie Rangel and Alan Mollohan, but no news there (except that the FBI was sniffing around Mollohan again). But we got an eyeful on the relationship between the PMA defense contractor lobbying group and Rep. John Murtha and his merry band of earmarkers on the defense appropriations subcommittee

If you've already had your breakfast or just have a strong stomach, it's certainly must reading.

Take it away, Carol Leonnig "The investigations by two separate ethics offices include an examination of the chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on defense, John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), as well as others who helped steer federal funds to clients of the PMA Group. The lawmakers received campaign contributions from the firm and its clients.

A document obtained by The Washington Post shows that the subcommittee members under scrutiny also include Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.), James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.). The document also indicates that the House ethics committee's staff recently interviewed the staff of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) about his allegation that a PMA lobbyist threatened him in 2007 when he resisted steering federal funds to a PMA client. The lobbyist told a Nunes staffer that if the lawmaker didn't help, the defense contractor would move out of Nunes's district and take dozens of jobs with him."

Kill Cap and Trade

Save the planet? Kill cap-and-trade
Examiner Editorial October 30, 2009

If members of Congress need yet another reason to kill the Waxman-Markey bill, the Obama administration's economy-suffocating, job-destroying energy program, Princeton University's Tim Searchinger and his colleagues have a humdinger: Carbon reduction laws encourage widespread deforestation as trees and other vegetation are harvested to produce energy from biomass to replace oil and gas. The problem is that in long run, this process actually increases greenhouse gas emissions, which cap-and-trade is meant to reduce, according to Searchinger.

The Princeton researcher's paper, published Oct. 23 in Science, points out that almost all prior global warming studies failed to take into account the carbon emissions that result from converting cropland and forests to energy production. This accounting error treats all bio-energy as carbon-neutral, the authors say, despite the fact that burning wood and clearing land actually releases quite a large quantity of carbon into the atmosphere.

"By using a worldwide agricultural model to estimate emissions from land-use change, we found that corn-based ethanol, instead of producing a 20% savings, nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years and increases greenhouse gases for 167 years," the Princeton authors say. "Biofuels from switchgrass, if grown on U.S. corn lands, increase emissions by 50%." Neither the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, nor existing European cap-and-trade programs have taken into account widespread deforestation as farmers worldwide respond to the new economic incentives, Searchinger added.

FreedomWorks Virginia

Thursday, October 29, 2009

FreedomWorks in Richmond With Dick Armey and John Taylor
Cross-posted on UCV and The Talon

Revised and extended

The first official FreedomWorks Virginia event went off without a hitch tonight down at Europa Italian Cafe on E. Cary St. I highly recommend this resturant. Its easy to get to, plenty of parking less than half a block from the door. Go spend money and tell 'em FreedomWorks sent ya'.

We had about 100 folks in attendance, and some of those folks drove from as far as Rockbridge and Shennandoah County to hear Dick Armey, John Taylor from Tertium Quids, Nan Swift from FreedomWorks, Tabitha Hale from SmartGirlPolitics, and Josh Eboch newest member of the FreedomWorksVA team, speak on issues near and dear to the hearts of Virginians.

FreedomWorks, and Virginia, are very lucky to have such talented, intelligent, motivated individuals.

Doc Thompson was under the weather, but one of the best stand-ins ever filled in for him. Scott Lee from The Lee Brothers did the Emcee duties and he was, well, he was Scott Lee.

There may be an addition to a segment on the Lee Brothers radio show on Saturday mornings. Seems Scott is a huge fan of good BBQ sauce, and since I happen to know where to get some primo, Scott came up with an idea. I'll let him develop it as he sees fit, but stay tuned. This may get sticky. ;)

Be sure to listen to Doc on Friday. He's going to have a film crew from the BBC in the studio with him. I met them tonight. A lot of Britons are going to get introduced to some real Americans when this documentary on Cap and Trade gets broadcast in England on BBC2.

Once the Virginia election is over, and we have a conservative majority back in charge, the real work begins. The mission is the re-affirmation of the sovereignty of the several states and the rights of those states to conduct business without unneccessary government regulations.

We'll be directly involved working to protect the jobs and the standard of living of the citizens of the Commwealth by encouraging the passage of legislation that enhances domestic energy production and promotes self-reliance and personal responsibility.

We need to stop cap and trade in its tracks. We need to protect the people who provide us with uninterrupted power. We need to drive a stake through the heart of restrictions on domestic energy production. We need to push hard for the House of Delegates and the VA Senate to recognize that the federal government does not have the final word on the welfare of the citizens. The Commonwealth has the right and obligation to defend the rights and property of its citizens.

The 10th Amendment is law. It is clear.

Josh is moving to Richmond and will be the point man for FreedomWorks Virginia. If you have something you think FreedomWorksVA can help with, please leave a comment here and we'll do what we we're allowed by law or you can hit him from the FreedomWorks site.

It starts here. It starts now. In Virginia. Where it began the first time. Its time for Virginia citizens to once again mark their place in history.

The Constitution is the Law.
Everything else is just a regulation.

Heritage Foundation and Prince Harry's Healthcare

MyHeritage.org
If you don't get MyHeritage, you are under-informed, my friend.

October 28, 2009 By Amanda Reinecker

'Gigantic, unintelligible, unaffordable, over-regulatory, federal legislation'

After 13 days of secret, closed-door negotiations on health care legislation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced Monday that he had reached an agreement with Senators Chris Dodd (D-MT) and Max Baucus (D-CT), and three top administration officials. Unfortunately, Senator Reid did not tell the American people much else.

Even many lawmakers remain in the dark regarding the outcome of this "secret deal that Senator Reid wants to get passed and signed into law 'this year,'" writes
Heritage Senate Relations expert Brian Darling.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, summed it up: "It will be a thousand-page, trillion-dollar bill that raises premiums, raises taxes and slashes Medicare for our seniors to create new government spending programs. That's not reform."

Even as some of the final details of the bill do go public, it is likely that lawmakers won't know in advance entirely what it is they are voting on. This is because the legislation the Senate Finance Committee "agreed" to -- all 1,502 pages of it -- is the most massive piece of legislation ever introduced by Congress.

But length isn't the only record the "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009" claims, as Heritage health policy analyst Ed Haislmaier notes. "For the first time in fifteen years, [Congress] has set a new all-time division record for gigantic, unintelligible, unaffordable, over-regulatory, federal legislation."

What we do know about Reid's 'secret deal'

Although Senator Reid did not go into great detail about the health care "reform" legislation, he did mention that bill includes a government-run health insurance "option" that would "compete" against private health plans.

In an attempt to gain much-needed support from skeptical moderates in both parties, liberals have added a new twist to the "public option": a provision allowing states to opt out of the program. This would require states to pass legislation by 2014 rejecting participation in the federal government run plan.

But this new wrinkle is really more of the same, warns Heritage health policy analyst Nina Owcharenko. "This latest Senate ploy creates the illusion of an 'option' rather than making any fundamental changes to the controversial proposal."

Owcharenko explains why this "opt-out" model is just another government-run plan that is guaranteed to fail:

States can only opt-out of the government-run plan, not the entire bill. But the rest of the bill contains hundreds of provisions, such as the expansion of Medicaid, which will place major financial burdens on the states.

It is still a government-run plan because the government will require non-participating states to meet federal conditions. These government-determined conditions could include the creation of state-level public options that mirror the federal plan.

States will likely select the public "option" because of the bureaucracy and enormous administrative complexity required for a state opt-out. Federal conditions will limit states' ability to create alternatives.

State innovation will suffer under the massive health care proposal's employer and individual mandates, and government micromanagement of an industry that represents one-sixth of our economy.

So even though the states would be able to "opt out" of the government-run health insurance program, the federal government will make it very difficult to do so. And for the few states that do succeed in withdrawing, the government will still dominate their health care systems.

A true state "opt-out" provision would allow states to opt out of the bill in its entirety, argues Owcharenko. "Any other opt-out is just another shell game that is intended to appear as a concession but in reality provides for greater federal control and blocks much needed structural changes."

Drill Drill Drill

Virginia stands to be a leader in the development and use of domestic energy, if the soon to be newly elected Republican majority in the General Assembly, the Senate and the Governor's Mansion have the cajones to stand up to the EPA and government regulations and reaffirm State Sovereignty. Its about states' rights. Its called the 10th Amendment.

We have the right as a sovereign state to take care of our citizens first, and I would expect nothing less from the other 56, ahm, I meant 49 states. The federal government has no authority to impose restrictions or mandates which diminish, or restrict the ability to improve, the standard of living of any citizen, regardless of what the law or regulation was intended to do when enacted.

Family Security Matters has a piece posted today, part of which is excerpted here:

Our future prosperity and freedom are at risk. This is because we have a current energy policy that puts them at risk. We are also contemplating a new energy policy, commonly termed “cap and trade” which could very well push our nation’s economy of a cliff, (my conclusion, not that of Chevron). Mr. Watson started his remarks with a plea that we start with some “facts,” what President John Adams called “stubborn things.”

Over the horizon, we will need to invest some $26 trillion in energy production, transportation, and efficient utilization technology. The U.S. population is growing and so is that of the world. The U.S. and world economy also need to grow to raise the standard of living of people everywhere – to secure the “heat, light and transportation” that we all take for granted said Watson. But over eighty percent of the natural gas and petroleum reserves in the world are in the hands of governments. And 85 percent of such U.S. reserves are off limits to exploration and development.

Watson further noted the U.S. oil and gas industry is responsible for 9 million American jobs and 7.5 percent of our GDP. The challenge of providing an affordable energy supply for more than 300 million Americans is being made all the more difficult by the regulatory ambitions of the U.S. government and its growing debt. Yet most Americans want to be less dependent on foreign supplies of oil that can be manipulated to harm our economy. And they believe we need a stable but diverse energy supply. And they also want to do their responsible part for ameliorating any negative impacts on our climate and environment.

/snip

....the current restrictions on the exploration and development for U.S.-owned fossil fuel resources make so little sense. U.S. oil production has declined by 4 million barrels a day over the past 25 years while demand has grown by exactly that amount – 4 million barrels a day. Thus, although we are the number 2 or 3 producer of coal, natural gas and oil from domestic resources, when we import 8 million barrels of oil daily, (the combined drop in production coupled with the increase in demand), it is at a cost that approached some $450 billion a year when oil hit $147 a barrel.

Yet the U.S. Geological Survey is forbidden by federal law from actually doing an accurate assessment of how much oil and gas we have off of our coasts and on Federal land. And we still propose to tax those oil and gas resources we do produce at a rate far greater than other resources. Add to that the prohibition on exploration, and it is easy to understand how oil exploration and development was pushed overseas and with it the complimentary run-up in U.S. oil imports. Reasonable estimates are that at least 30 billion barrels of oil are readily available off our shores or in places such as Anwar. While we cannot “drill for independence,” said Watson, we can and should “drill for more energy security.”

.

I take exception to the remark that we cannot "drill for independence". Once we start extracting our own reserves and refine those resereves into a marketable product, we become independent. We can sell it, or keep it. Either way, its ours, we own it and we'll do with it as we please.

Missles of October Deja Vu?

My cynical paranoid conspiracy nature is in full blown red alert. The scenarios that could be extrapolated from this event are just scary. Bad stuff. REALLY bad stuff.

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Deja vu! Russians arming Cuba's military
Plans include sensitive electronic eavesdropping station 90 miles from U.S.

"We inspected the condition of this equipment, and outlined the measures to be taken to maintain the defense capability of this country," Makarov said. "I think a lot of work needs to be done in this respect, and I hope we will be able to accomplish this task."

Makarov pointed out that during the Soviet era, the Russians delivered considerable military equipment to Cuba. After all these years, he said, most of the weaponry has become obsolete and needs repair.

Then in August 2008 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that Russia needed to rebuild its links to the Cuban island.

He was careful not to say that Russia was establishing bases in Cuba, even though Moscow apparently intends to use the Caribbean island as a potential refueling stop for its nuclear-capable bombers and for ports of call for its warships.

Then Russian Air Force chief Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev in March 2009 had made it clear that Cuba, as well as Venezuela, could be used to base Russia's strategic bombers, although the Kremlin was quick to add at the time that such a development was "hypothetical."

"We need to reestablish positions on Cuba and in other countries," Putin said.
The moves have been developing for some time. In December 2008 a group of Russian warships, headed by the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, visited.

And In 2007, Putin began to focus on Cuba in response to the Bush administration's plans to install a permanent missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. He said that such action was analogous to the time in 1962 when the then-Soviet Union deployed rockets on Cuba and provoked the Cuban missile crisis.

The Hammer-Weekly Standard Blog

Lieberman Public-Option Push-Back Brings Out Snowe and Lincoln

Lieberman:

Mr. Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who caucuses with the Democrats, told reporters Tuesday that he would vote in favor of a procedural motion allowing debate of the bill. But he said that, unless the bill changes substantially, he would vote with Senate Republicans against a motion to allow a vote on final passage of the bill.

"I think that a lot of people may think that the public option is free. It's not," Mr. Lieberman said. "It's going to cost the taxpayers and people that have health insurance now, and if it doesn't, it's going to add terribly to our national debt."

Then, moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, whose vote Democrats on Senate Finance worked so hard to earn on the committee vote for an earlier version of the bill:

Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe says she would vote with fellow Republicans to block the Democratic health care overhaul if changes are not made to the version Majority Leader Harry Reid outlined this week.

Another moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins:

Meanwhile, Maine Republican Susan Collins, who had earlier indicated interest in trying to pass a bipartisan bill this year, issued a statement underscoring her opposition to "a taxpayer-subsidized, government-run health insurance company."

And, moderate Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln:

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said Tuesday she still can't support a government-funded insurance option, a day after legislation was unveiled that would give states the choice of whether to participate in the program.

"Creating another government-funded option is not where we're going. We don't need to go there," Lincoln told members of the Arkansas Farm Bureau during a video conference. "A government-funded option is something that I think is not the way to go."

Phil Klein on the defections:

The problem Reid faces is that if he pulls back support for the government plan now, it will enrage liberals who will believe he's sold them out to win the support of a few moderates. But if he charges ahead with the government plan proposal, he risks derailing the entire health care effort.

Sen Jim DeMint Supports Doug Hoffman

GOP Sen. Jim DeMint supports Doug Hoffman
By Michelle Malkin • October 27, 2009 03:01 PM
RedState has the scoop.

It’s way past time for the spoiler radical leftist Republican Dede Scozzafava to get out of the race.
Dana Loesch is keeping tabs on all the latest NY-23 developments at Dump Dede.